I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for ciphering and re-ordering packets in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, broadcast, messaging, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication for multiple users by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems.
A wireless communication system may utilize Radio Link Control (RLC) for various functions such as re-ordering of received packets, detection of missing packets, and retransmission of packets received in error or missing. RLC typically appends a sequence number to each packet in order to accomplish these functions. RLC also typically resides at an interior network entity that is remote from a base station providing radio communication. Consequently, feedback from a receiver to a transmitter for RLC may incur extended delay. To reduce this delay, RLC may be moved to the base station. However, implementing RLC at the base station may cause other issues. For example, a user may be handed over from one base station to another base station. The RLC entities at both base stations would then need to synchronize their sequence numbers so that the user can properly re-order packets received from these base stations.